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That's a joke headline – there's no taming Kevin Parker, because the visionary behindTame
Impala knows that the best way for him to make music is entirely on his own.
By Zoë Radas and Jonathan Alley
Y ou’ve probably detected that our
cover image this month features just
one man – in fact, as Tame Impala
fever slithers across the surface of the world
this month to accompany the release of third
album Currents, you’ll notice that almost
every promo shot of ‘Tame Impala’ is just a
singular human. That’s because, despite the
fact the touring group comprises five dudes,
the music of this beloved act is written,
recorded and produced only by Kevin Parker.
“I tend to make my own music, my own
way, and it’s really best I make it on my own,”
Parker tells STACK. “It’s just the way I’ve
always done it.”
Parker isn’t averse to collaboration, and
has worked with some incredible musicians:
dream pop chanteuse Melody Prochet,
Aussie electro duo Canyons, Cam Avery of
The Growl and Pond, and most recently Mark
Ronson, with whom Parker co-wrote three
tracks for Ronson’s acclaimed album Uptown
Special. But he’s firm about his isolated
writing style. “I love what Mark Ronson does,
he’s an awesome guy – in fact when I saw
his TED Talk I sent him a congrats email right
away, and I think everyone should see it –
but I make music my own way, and I didn’t
really listen to any other music at all, making
Currents. That’s how I’ve always made music:
pretty much all my own trip, if you know what
I mean.”
Currents is Parker’s most creatively
enterprising project to date: there are so
many petite details which, while at once
eclectic, also make so much coherent
sense that you’re easily drawn into that
aforementioned trip. “I think if you listen you
can really hear I’ve thrown loads of ideas
at this album,” he explains. “A few things
were done on the run, but the majority of it
was made hunkered down in Fremantle, by
myself, just sifting through loads of ideas
I’d gathered over time; loads of riffs, little
fragments.”
Some of these larger shreds are the
interludes which come between tracks:
There’s Nangs (which sounds exactly like its
title) at 1:47 long, Disciples (a jaunty, retro
little romp) at 1.48, and Gossip (spacey leslie
synths) at 55 seconds long. “To me, they’re
fun, but also important,” Parker says. “I don’t
take things… too seriously… but I also like
being able to inject little ideas like that; it just
breaks things up, just says ‘Here’s a little idea,
we might turn it into a song later… or not!’
Musicians all do that in ways; little fragments
of things grow and change.”
In between these particles are the
sweeping, liquid, sometimes lazy disco tracks
which are the album’s organs: The string-
[It's] pretty much all
my own trip, if you
know what I mean
088 AUGUST 2015 JB Hi-Fi
COVER FEATURE MUSIC visit
TAMING
PARKER